Sleep

With my return to work looming in the near future and sleep deprivation taking it's toll, we needed to make some changes to Finley's sleep pattern - a.k.a start sleep training.  The first night of trialing what we had read in a few other sleep books and attempting to let her cry it out, we got about 4 hours of sleep and a hysterical baby.  At the recommendation of a neighbor who has an 11 week old, we turned to the book "The Baby Sleep Solution".  Our neighbor's daughter is sleeping 11 hours a night - WHOA.  I needed this book and drove to B&N that night (they were out and I left in tears...so my mom graciously picked it up for me the next day)  I read the book in 2 hours and was so energized to start using the techniques with Finley!  We are now in the 3-4 week training program called "baby boot camp".

One of the things we needed to do was move her out of the bassinet in our room and into her crib.  So we now hear her in stereo through the monitor.  We also heard another baby being "ferberized" the first night so we changed the channel (maybe it was Cam and Mitchell from Modern Family!!).

Another step was to create a strict bedtime routine.  She now gets a bath (no soap most nights due to her skin issues), a big bottle, a change into her sleep sack, the sound machine, and some cuddle time in the glider with mom or dad. 

The biggest change for us was the feeding schedule.  The basic idea of the book is to slowly transition your baby to eating all of the ounces of milk he/she needs to daytime feedings, eliminating night time feedings.  Feedings are scheduled 4 hours apart with the goal of 24 ounces/day.  (read the book if this is confusing or interesting)  Finley had been eating every 2-3 hours and who knows how much she was eating because I was nursing.  So while we are completing this training period, I am pumping most every feeding to measure exactly how much she is getting and making sure it is enough.  This will actually work well for the 2 feedings she gets at daycare when I go back to work. 

Trying to stretch the feedings to every 4 hours requires some creativity on my part - but the book gives you multiple suggestions to distract the baby for as long as possible until you baby step your way to the 4 hour mark.  We've been having play dates, taking walks, and figuring out different ways to play together to pass the time!

"you want me to wait how long to eat?"

At night the goal is to feed Finley in her room without fully waking her (lights off, no talking, bottle ready ASAP)...not in our room with the light on while watching Jimmy Fallon re-runs...hmmm this was a bad habit we'd developed.  She'd be put down drowsy, but awake, every time.

So far this has been the biggest challenge.  We are "allowed" to soothe her after 3 mins of crying and repeat this for as long as it takes for her to drift off into sleep. 

(The picture above is her first morning after the training when I had to wake her up 3 times to eat because she was drowsy and kept drifting back to sleep - that was new!)

After 3 days of boot camp, we are making progress. 

-Finley eats every 4 hours now and is handling about 5-6 ounces at a time. 

-She goes to sleep at night after her routine without a lot of fussing.

-She has been sleeping 8-9 hours before waking up.

-After she eats 2.5 ounces in the middle of the night she has needed between 2-4 soothing episodes to fall back asleep.

-She has then been sleeping until after 7am.

The jury is still out on how well this will work in the long run, but so far we are getting much more uninterrupted sleep.  I also feel more equipped as a mom knowing how to structure my day.  I now divide my days up into 4 hour blocks that make the day go by much quicker and with a lot less stress.  

Small victories people, small victories...